MAHESH PRASAD President (ASG), RELIANCE INFOCOMM

He returned to India last year after spending 18 years in the US with companies like Nextel and Bell Atlantic

Log on to www.siliconindia.com, and on the home page you'll find a message flashing against the backdrop of the Indian tricolour: "India is Hiring". Check out the link and an interesting story unfurls. Silicon India, a US-based magazine for Indian techies, is organising a couple of events (Career Fairs, the website says) to recruit professionals for Indian companies. Interestingly, these events, one held on October 4 and the other slated for November 6, are the magazine's fifth and sixth successive Career Fairs this year.

As to what these fairs are all about, they are basically events where companies with an India presence set up stalls and literally hire US-based tech professionals by the shipload. It's clearly a huge opportunity and Silicon India has been early to catch the action. Says an obviously upbeat Harvi Sachar, Editor-in-Chief, Silicon India, in an e-mail interview: "Responses (to the fairs) have been far beyond our expectations. In our first fair in California earlier this year, we were expecting about 200 people and we finally had about 1,000 attendees. For the upcoming event again in California on November 6, we expect to have 50 companies put up stalls."

Here is a phenomenon that is clearly getting bigger. What phenomenon? Well, to spell it out, it's all about Indian professionals returning home-in droves, we might add-(See Look Who's Hiring) after stints that last anywhere between three and 20 years in the US. It would be no exaggeration to claim that the number of professionals returning from the US could easily run into several thousands at this point. Consider what just the tech MNCs have to report. Oracle executives state that of the 1,000 people hired for the firm's India operations last year, 10 per cent were professionals who had returned from overseas. Sun Microsystems has employed a total of 35 professionals who have moved in from the US last year alone. Some tech MNCs who did not want to reveal specific numbers indicate that about 4-5 per cent of the professionals hired last year were from overseas.

This is as far as mammoth companies with an employee base of anywhere between 1,500-3,000 employees in India go. Smaller product companies like July Systems, which specialises in the wireless space, has half of its 40-odd employee base come from overseas. Or take, for instance, the recently set up, Romesh Wadhwani-promoted Symphony Services, where 7 per cent of the 500-strong workforce comprises professionals who have returned from the US.

More evidence: As of August this year, 3,000 resumes had been posted by US Indians on the Indian segment of global job site Monsterindia.com, up from just 500 in January 2003. "The numbers are definitely getting bigger. The actual trend of Indians returning started sometime in late 2002, and has picked up steam in the last six months. Today, Indian it companies are looking to hire in large numbers and the US tag has a premium attached to it," says Dhruv Shenoy, VP (Marketing), Monsterindia.com. These professionals are getting hired across the board to fit various positions in the organisational structure. Says Silicon India's Sachar: "About 60 per cent (of candidates attending the fair) get hired in the middle management category, 30 per cent at senior levels, and 10 per cent for junior positions."

Home Is Where The Action Is

What is the motivation for these tech professionals to return home? "Well, one clear motivation is the shape of the economy there," says Ravi Parmeshwar, Manager (hr), Hewlett-Packard India Software Operations. "One candidate I spoke with recently said he used to tell people that things couldn't be better when asked how he was doing in the US a few years ago, now he says the situation just couldn't be worse," he adds.

C.S. BALASUBRAMANIAN GM (INDIA OPERATIONS), INSILICA

The US veteran of 16 years returned two months ago to set up operations for a semiconductor solutions company in Bangalore

More often than not, it's also the realisation that jobs are closing in and early movers might still bag the better jobs in India that has driven the move. Says Nitin Panchmal, Global Chief People Officer at Symphony Services: "One of the factors driving the trend is the fact that white collar jobs (in the US) are diminishing and several people have lost jobs, many of them have not been able to secure employment."

These motivations, however, tell just half the story. The most compelling motivation is the one that has driven professionals like Mahesh Prasad at Reliance Infocomm and Ranajoy Punja at Cisco to India-sheer opportunity. Prasad, President of the Applications and Solutions Group at Reliance Infocomm, a telecom industry veteran in his early 40s, returned to India last year after an 18-year stint in the US where he worked with leading telecom companies like Nextel and Bell Atlantic (now Verizon), to take up a challenging role at Reliance. The sheer size and scale of the third generation network rollout by Reliance last December inspires Prasad to call it "one of the few networks of its magnitude in the world" as he attacks his job with gusto at the sprawling Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City on the outskirts of Mumbai. Prasad oversees the rollout of all mobile data services across four million users.

Punja, too, has returned after a 20-year stint in the US, where he landed as an undergrad and then stayed on for an MBA, followed by a 12-year career in the tech industry with companies like Tandem (now part of hp) and Cisco. He returned to India three months ago and is now Vice President of marketing for Cisco in India and SAARC. "The main reason for the move was the excellent opportunity career-wise as India is now being seen as a very important market for Cisco." At Cisco's San Jose headquarters, Punja's responsibility was limited to a single product line, but in India now he deals with multiple products and is in charge of marketing for India and SAARC-a clear move up from his previous sales position.

Interestingly enough, even in terms of pay, the move is no longer regarded as a huge sacrifice by the returning techie. "People are starting to see the move here as an opportunity to build their career. In fact, a lot of people are waiting for the right break," says Murali Subramanian, Vice President, Oracle E-Business Development Solutions, who moved to India about four years ago after spending 12 years in the US.

RANAJOY PUNJA VP (MARKETING), CISCO

He relocated three months ago from San Jose to oversee marketing for CIsco in India and SAARC

It was such a break that brought C.S. Balasubramanian back from the US two months ago. An electrical engineer from IIT Delhi, he worked with National Seminconductor for 16 years, before joining a start up, Terablaze, two years ago. And when his latest employer, Insilica-a fabless semiconductor solutions comany-wanted to set up operations in India, Balasubramanian agreed to relocate. "Building an organisation in India from scratch while working on cutting-edge technologies really appealed to me," says he.

Fine, but what about all the other variables that kept these professionals rooted in the US like the dollar pay and standard of living? "I don't have specific numbers, but generally speaking on a dollar-for-dollar comparison, I would imagine that the cut would be in the region of about 50 per cent, but then the cost of living in India is a third of what it is in the US," says a pragmatic Punja.

Oh yes, the standard of living is an issue of sorts, but nothing insurmountable. As Anilesh Seth, CEO, LG Software India, who returned a couple of years ago after a six-year stint in the US points out, "Well, one wishes the infrastructure and recreation facilities were better, but it's not a big issue. We're getting there and more importantly there's a sense of working at it together.''

Welcome to the brave new American Desi.